Organizations of all types, such as on-line retailers, Internet service providers, search providers, financial institutions, universities, and other computing-intensive organizations, conduct computer operations from large scale computing facilities. Such computing facilities, often referred to as data centers, house and accommodate a large amount of server, network, and computer equipment to process, store, and exchange data as needed to carry out an organization's operations. Typically, a data center includes many server racks, each of which may include many servers and associated computer equipment. Information Technology (IT) operations are a crucial aspect of most organizational operations. One of the main concerns is business continuity—companies rely on their information systems to run their operations. If a system becomes unavailable, company operations may be impaired or stopped completely. It is necessary therefore to provide a reliable infrastructure for IT operations in order to minimize any chance of disruption. Severe weather conditions such as earthquakes, tornados or hurricanes can damage or destroy a data center roof and potentially disrupt the operations of a large number of the data center's customers and their data. Information security is also a concern, and for this reason data centers offer a secure environment which minimizes the chances of a security breach.
Further, because a data center may contain a large number of servers that include many electrical components, a large amount of electrical power may be required to operate the facility. The electrical power is distributed to a large number of locations spread throughout the computer room (e.g., many racks spaced from one another, and many servers in each rack). Electronic components in computer systems such as integrated circuits, printed circuit boards, mass storage devices, power supplies, processors, etc. generate excess heat. As an example, computers with multiple processors may generate 250 watts of waste heat. Multiply that figure by several thousand (or tens of thousands) to account for the amount of computers in a large data center, and one can readily appreciate the amount of heat that can be generated. A plurality of larger, multiple-processor computers configured into rack-mounted components within a racking system can generate a substantial amount of waste heat. To remedy this, data centers include mechanisms for waste heat removal from a plurality of racking systems, typically by circulating air through one or more of the rack systems. Many data centers therefore rely on air conditioning systems to maintain the temperature and other environmental conditions in the data center within acceptable limits.
A data center must maintain high standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment. This is generally accomplished through robust structural design and redundancy, including redundancy of processing resources, communication channels, as well as power and emergency backup power generation.